Facebook’s “awesome” surprise announcement next week may still be awesome, but it may also no longer be such a surprise.
The rumor mill is cranking out speculation that the social networking giant will raise the curtain on a new video chat platform that will be powered by Skype.
Sources speaking in confidence tell TechCrunch that the project is a done deal and ready to be unveiled.
Facebook will launch a new video chat product, powered by Skype, that works in browser. Suddenly those chat icons in the invitation have a lot more meaning.
If a new video platform is ultimately unveiled, it will come as no surprise that Facebook and Skype are once again working together.
Facebook and Skype have previously crossed paths and teamed up to integrate several Facebook features into the Skype service.
For SKype, the potential long-term partnership with Facebook could be very beneficial, as Facebook has more than 750 million active users to Skype’s relatively paltry user base of just 170 million.
And this also brings Facebook even closer to Microsoft, which is a Facebook shareholder and has a pending acquisition of Skype.
